Introduction: The Complete Paleo Diet Food List
Health Clue – The Complete Paleo Diet Food List. The paleo diet tries to make us feel like the food our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate. It sounds good, but what foods should you eat and what foods should you stay away from? This diet can make it hard to figure out what to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you are new to it. Like most diets, this one has things that you can and cannot eat. Some things are also kind of in the middle and are sometimes okay.
Our complete list of paleo-friendly foods will make it easier for you to plan your meals, whether you’re going out to eat or cooking at home. Here’s what you need to know to start eating paleo, review the rules, or just accept some of the diet’s healthiest parts.
The Complete Paleo Diet Food List?
“Eating paleo” is based on the idea that the way people eat now in the West makes chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and obesity more common. People who follow the paleo diet say that it can lower inflammation, make workouts better, give you more energy, help you lose weight, keep your blood sugar stable, and even lower your risk of getting chronic diseases.
For the most part, the paleo diet encourages people to eat more whole foods, like fruits and veggies, healthy proteins, and healthy fats, and less processed foods, sugar, and salt. These “guidelines” sound familiar and are beneficial for people who want to eat a more balanced diet.
However, the paleo diet also says to avoid carbs, dairy, and legumes, which has made nutrition experts less than happy. In spite of what paleo supporters say, these foods are beneficial for you and can give you a lot of fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Things you can eat on the Paleo food plan
For the most part, the paleo diet lets you eat anything that your ancestors could hunt or gather. Among these are:
- Grass-fed meat: This type of meat is better for you and the earth, and it’s more like what our ancestors ate.
- When you buy fish and shrimp, choose wild caught.
- Lots of fresh fruits and veggies
- Eggs
- Seeds and nuts
- Good oils (coconut, flaxseed, olive, walnut)
Foods with meat and seafood
Simple Salmon and Vegetables on the Grill
As long as it’s paleo, you can eat most meat and fish. Lean protein can be found in meat. Protein is what all cells and bodies are made of. A lot of protein also helps you feel full. Watch out for cured and pre-marinated foods that might have sugar added to them. On the paleo diet, some common choices for meat and fish are:
- Beef
- Chicken
- Salmon
- Salmon
- Cod
- Turkey
- Pork
- Bacon
Grass-fed meat is better for you than meat from animals fed grains because it is leaner and has more omega-3 fatty acids, which are beneficial fats that protect your heart and lower inflammation in your body. Most American foods are high in unhealthy saturated and trans fats and low in healthy polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. This is why grass-fed meats are essential to the paleo diet.
Search for chicken that wasn’t given antibiotics, and if you want to know more about how it was raised, buy your meat from a nearby farm.
You may also get more omega-3s if you choose wild fish over farm-caught seafood. If you’re following the paleo diet, look for wild salmon and other fish that are caught in a way that doesn’t harm the environment.
Veggies and fruits
Cauliflower Steaks with Chimichurri is the featured recipe.
Most people agree that eating fruits and vegetables is beneficial for you. There are lots of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants in them. Some veggies, like potatoes, are high in starch, and some fruits, like bananas, are higher in sugar. This is the only thing dieters need to keep in mind. If you want to lose weight or keep an eye on your blood sugar, don’t eat too many of these. In fact, some very strict diets don’t allow potatoes at all.
Because they have more sugar than other fruits, many paleo fans wonder if bananas are still paleo. People think of them as paleo. There are 113 calories, 2 grams of fiber, and 26 grams of carbs in a medium-sized banana. A good source of potassium, bananas are a whole food that hasn’t been changed in any way.
When you eat paleo, it’s important to remember that you should eat whole, unprocessed foods. This means that fruits and veggies should make up most of your diet. On a paleo diet, you can also eat frozen veggies that don’t have any sauce on them.
Fresh fruits and vegetables that fit the paleo diet are:
Vegetables for Paleo
- Collard
- Greens
- Brussels sprouts and broccoli
- Potatoes with sugar
- Squash with butter
- Leafy greens like cabbage and spinach
Paleo Fruits
- Apples and berries
- like strawberries, grapes, and blackberries
- Grapes with melon
- Boogers
- Fruits with citrus
- Plums and peaches
Eggs
Eggs are okay to eat because they have a lot of protein, minerals, B vitamins, and antioxidants. They are also cheap and simple to make. If you want eggs with more omega-3s, buy organic eggs from chickens that were not raised in cages.
Seeds and nuts
There are lots of beneficial fats, fiber, and protein in tree nuts and seeds. Plus, people used to gather them in ancient times, so you can put a lot of them in your cart. Remember that peanuts are not paleo because they are legumes, which are plants that grow underground.
Paleo Seeds and Nuts
- Cashews and almonds
- Praslin’s
- Cashews
- Macadamia nuts
- Pecans and hazelnuts
- Kumquats
- Brazil nuts
- Pepitas are pumpkin seeds.
- Chia seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Flax seeds
Good Oils
dip with roasted broccoli and nuts
It’s harder with oils. According to Loren Cordain, Ph.D., the founder of the Paleo Diet movement, the following oils are beneficial on the Paleo diet: flaxseed, macadamia, avocado, and coconut oils. This is because they came straight from the plant. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors probably didn’t eat flaxseed oil, but we can now because it has a lot of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid that is beneficial for your heart and reduces inflammation.
Olive Oils
- Olive oil
- Nut oil
- Flaxseed oil
- Macadamia oil
- Grape seed oil
- Coconut oil
Things you should not eat on the Paleo diet
If you are strictly following a paleo diet, stay away from these things. On the paleo diet, you can’t eat these things:
- Grains for cereal
- Nuts and beans, lentils, tofu, and other legumes
- Simple sugar
- Ready-made foods
- Soda and drinks with added sugar
- refined oils from plants
- Salt Sweeteners made in a lab
Grains
Cereal, crackers, rice, pasta, bread, and beer are foods that you won’t eat much of on the paleo diet. Yes, beer. On the paleo diet, you can’t eat any grains. Why? First, grains are a result of modern farming. People in the Stone Age didn’t eat bread. Second, grains have a lot of carbs, which can make your blood sugar go up.
Some people who are against the paleo diet say that not all grains are the same. For example, whole grains don’t raise your blood sugar as much as refined carbs do. People on the paleo diet still don’t eat grains because they say that the chemicals and proteins in grains, such as gluten, lectins, and phytates, make the body inflamed and stop other nutrients from being broken down. Paleo critics say that gluten isn’t a problem unless you are allergic or sensitive to it, and that lectins and phytates aren’t a problem either if you eat a healthy diet.
Legume
There is a big group of plants called legumes that have a seed or pod. All beans, peas, lentils, tofu and other soy foods, and peanuts fall into this group. Soy sauce and peanut butter are also in this. The high amount of lectins and phytic acid in legumes means they can’t be eaten on the paleo diet. The science community has mixed feelings about this, just like they do about grains. In fact, many studies, including one that came out in 2021 in Nutrients, say that eating legumes is good because they are low in fat and high in fiber, protein, and iron.
Made-up foods
A lot of processed foods have added salt, refined veggie oils, refined sugars, and artificial sweeteners. They didn’t eat these things in the past. In addition, most scientists agree that refined sugars and too much salt are linked to fat, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
But people don’t agree on things like veggie oils and artificial sweeteners. Although the American Heart Association says that you should eat corn, safflower, and canola oils, paleo plans say that you are “not allowed” to do so because of the amount of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the oils and how they are handled.
Several artificial sweeteners have been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as safe to eat. However, they are not allowed on the paleo diet because they are processed foods that were made in a lab. Also, a study shows that artificial sweeteners can still make us want sweets and can be bad for the bacteria in our guts, even though they lower the number of calories in food.
Quick and Easy Paleo Recipes Paleo-Friendly Foods You Can Eat Sometimes
Dairy
If you follow a true paleo diet, you can’t eat dairy because hunter-gatherers didn’t milk cows. Cheese, milk, butter, yogurt, and sour cream are all in this group. Though some paleo dieters say dairy is fine, especially grass-fed dairy, since foods like grass-fed butter have more omega-3s (as reported in a 2019 study in Foods). Some paleo eaters can also eat fermented dairy products like kefir because they have less lactose and casein, two things that paleo eaters are worried about in dairy. You can use coconut milk, almond milk, or cashew milk to make non-dairy goods instead of dairy if you want to stick to the paleo diet.
Fruits and vegetables that are high in starch
There is some doubt here. Foods like potatoes, squash, and beets that are high in starch and sugar can make your blood sugar rise more than berries and veggies. That’s why paleo experts say these are fine in small amounts and should be avoided if you are trying to lose weight.
Alkohol
If you follow the paleo diet to the letter, you should stay away from booze. Beer is made from carbs, and some liquors also have gluten in them. For cider fans, there is positive news: most bitter ciders are gluten-free, so they are okay. Make sure by reading the tag. Because it has the antioxidant resveratrol, red wine is more popular with paleo people. Sorry, Chardonnay fans, but white wine is not allowed.
Example of a Paleo diet plan
Check out our full 7-Day Paleo Diet Meal Plan for more ideas on how to eat paleo. Here is an example of a day when you might eat paleo:
- For breakfast, I had eggs, spinach, and grapes.
- Fruit and pumpkin seeds for a snack
- We had spaghetti squash with shrimp for lunch.
- Banana with nut butter for a snack in the afternoon
- Dinner: chicken with veggies and sweet potatoes
How to Make the Paleo Diet Work for You
There is more to the paleo diet than this short guide shows. EatingWell doesn’t think it should be so strict. Some foods, like whole grains, dairy, and legumes, are not part of a standard paleo diet, but you need to eat them to get important nutrients.
Some people want to follow the paleo diet plan but don’t want to be too strict. You don’t have to do everything or nothing. You might want to follow some of Paleo’s eating rules and skip the ones that don’t work for you. One thing you could do is eat more fruits and veggies and less added sugar. Talk to your doctor or a trained dietitian about grains or dairy if you’re not sure what’s best for your body.
Conclusion: The Complete Paleo Diet Food List
The Complete Paleo Diet Food List. By understanding and applying The Complete Paleo Diet Food List, you can begin your journey to a healthier, more natural, and more powerful diet. Moving away from processed foods and back to whole foods from nature is the first step to achieving a fitter body and a clearer mind. Remember, every small step towards a better diet is a long-term investment in your health. So, let’s start exploring the world of Paleo and enjoy the incredible benefits you can achieve with more natural and nutritious food choices. Good luck and make this Paleo journey a fun healthy lifestyle!